Paradigm Shift: Couponing for the Wealthy

“The popularity of the movement once affiliated with the budget-conscious middle class now cuts across all gender, age and socioeconomic groups. We see that the biggest adopters tend to be high income earners. The most popular sites traffic in deals on restaurants, travel, classes and services like teeth-whitening. These aren’t exactly luxury items, but they are aimed at people with disposable income – and that’s exactly who’s buying.”[1]

People who don’t use coupons tend to be:

People who consider the environment of utmost importance are the most likely to be coupon lovers – 37% more likely than others.

College-educated people are 78% more likely than the non-college educated to be coupon lovers.

Parents are 48% more likely than non-parents to be coupon lovers.

Northeasterners are 66% more likely than West Coasters to be coupon lovers.

The middle-aged are more likely than younger generations to have a strong opinion about online coupons.

Coupon lovers are 220% more likely than abstainers to highly value tradition, and 96% more likely to highly value self-direction.

Devoutly religious people are 31% more likely to be coupon lovers and substantially less likely to be Libertarians are 47% more likely to be online coupon users

Self-identified insecure, temperamental people are 33% more likely to be abstainers.

Detached, sophisticated, careless and procrastinating people are also each at least 20% more likely to be coupon abstainers.

Men are 27% more likely to be coupon abstainers.

Insecure, low-income men are the quintessential coupon abstainers, being 130% more likely to avoid online coupons. Those with household incomes of less than $50,000 per year are a fifth as likely to be coupon lovers.

For the second year in a row, Atlanta takes the top spot on the ‘Most Frugal U.S. Cities’ list, according to the 2010 Savings Index1 released by Coupons.com. On average, regular users of Coupons.com in Atlanta printed more than $1,000 dollars in coupon savings from the site in 2010. That is almost twice as much as during 2009, when they printed $531 in savings.

Top 20 Cities Redeeming Coupons in 2011

Atlanta

Tampa

Cincinnati

Saint Louis

Minneapolis

Charlotte

Nashville

Cleveland

Pittsburgh

Raleigh

Kansas City

Washington DC

Miami

Dallas

Oklahoma City

Boston

Denver

Seattle

Columbus

Wichita

Top 20 Cities Redeeming Mobile Coupons

Atlanta

Tampa

Saint Louis

Cincinnati

Oklahoma City

Dallas

Charlotte

Pittsburgh

Tulsa

Miami

Minneapolis

Washington DC

Nashville

Raleigh

Wichita

Kansas City

New Orleans

Cleveland

Denver

Memphis

Coupon Use by Ethnicity / Living Area

While all ethnic populations use coupons, nearly 75% of coupon clippers are Caucasian.[2]

Heavier coupon users tend to live in affluent suburbs or comfortable open space

Non-coupon users tend to live in rural areas and developing urban cores

The Average Coupon User

“In summary the profile of the mostly likely coupon user is: white, female, 25-44 years old, married with no children or with younger children. They live in the suburbs, have at least some college education and make more than $50,000 a year. They have Internet access, own their home, and prefer texting to calling on their phone. Coupon users are now younger, affluent, and tech-savvy – pretty much the exact opposite of the stereotype of coupon users.” -Afullcup.com[10]

Here are some more highlights of coupon users. It is difficult to pinpoint the average coupon user because couponers span every demographic, age group, and gender. We can only point to certain statistics and say that certain groups and demographics use coupons more than another group, but you can only get the whole picture when you take in the group as a whole.

Households residing in comfortable country and suburban spreads are more likely to be heavier coupon users, while non-users are more apt to be those households living in rural areas and urban core areas. [2]